Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Talk to Me

Have pity on the Syrian intelligence officer whose job it is to try and make heads or tails out of the headlines coming from Israel on Sunday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is saying that we won't be speaking to Syria soon, and perhaps a bit more puzzlingly, so is his deputy, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres.

Another deputy of Olmert's, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, is in favor of exploring the Syrian offers and, most surprising of all, the head of the opposition, Binyamin Netanyahu, is overtaking the entire government from the left lane and advocating entering into negotiations with the Syrians - at least that's what the front page of Yediot Ahronot proclaimed in a banner headline.

It's not enough that Right and Left seem to be mixed up in responding to the Syrian challenge. Even in a normally monolithic party such as Shas, the ministers can't seem to agree.

Shas leader Eli Yishai says that accepting Bashar Assad's entreaties would be "legitimizing the terrorist vermin," while another of his party's ministers, Yitzhak Cohen, is urging Olmert to test the Syrian president's intentions by inviting him to Jerusalem.

No. We won't have pity on the Syrian intelligence officer. Why do these Arabs make everything so complicated? What's so particularly difficult about making heads or tails out of our politicians? There are no heads there, only tails.

August 1, 2007

Talk to Me

The Jerusalem PostJul. 31, 2007

A plane full of 200 English-speaking olim from across the United States and Canada landed at Ben-Gurion Airport Tuesday morning, on a flight organized by the Nefesh B'Nefesh aliya organization.

They were greeted by Immigrant Absorption Minister Ya'acov Edri (Kadima), who addressed the crowd in Hebrew, not a language that most present understood.

Gabi Krauss, a new Israeli from Massachusetts, was "frustrated" she could not understand the speech of the minister who is supposed to be the face of aliya. She called his appointment as minister in early July "a poor choice."

"He should be speaking English. It is really important," she said.

. . .

Asked if knowledge of English was an important asset for an Immigrant Absorption Minister, Edri said there were many other officials who spoke English within the ministry.

These Olim were obviously spared until today the joy of listening to an Israeli politician and understanding him. Otherwise they would have insisted on the minister speaking only in languages they cannot understand.